Brian Bendis: Framing Dark Reign: The List

If you could reside within the Marvel Universe and had the power to do eight things to make it better, what would you do?

Norman Osborn has his list of eight things, and beginning in September with Dark Reign: The List, he's determined to make them happen.

Taking the idea of a "crossover" and turning it on its ear, The List
is a series of one-shots by eight different creative teams, each
focusing on one of Marvel's heroes or teams as they are affected by
Osborn's attempt to cross another item off his to-do list. Teased by
Marvel's ad with the title "Iron Patriot Acts" and announced this
weekend, The List features the creators that Marvel calls its "Write Stuff" team of up-and-coming writers.

The connected one-shots are purported to "change the course of Dark
Reign and the Marvel Universe," coming a little less than a year after
the events of Secret Invasion led to Osborn's power play and the
beginning of Dark Reign.

Not surprisingly, Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of Secret Invasion who has orchestrated Osborn's story in the pages of Dark Avengers,
is one of the minds behind this idea too. And the first thing on
Norman's list involves Clint Barton and the Avengers, meaning Bendis
gets to kick off The List with his issue of Dark Reign: The List – Avengers.

Newsarama spoke to Bendis to find out more about where this idea originated and what it means to his Avengers teams.

Newsarama: Hearing about The List, it looks like Norman's getting down to business. Is this a turning point in Dark Reign?

Brian Michael Bendis: Yes, it's a huge chapter. There's a few
things we wanted to do with this. We had a little, mini-retreat before
the big one, where me and Fraction and Hickman and some others came up.
And I had heard that they wanted to do something fun. They didn't want
to do an event, but they wanted to do something cool. And I know that
Dan [Buckley] and a couple of the people at Marvel just wanted to make
sure that the writers are doing what they enjoy and are being used
right. It's these "Write Stuff" guys -- the ones we're all hoping for.
And I've thought before about why me and Mark Millar worked out, and
it's because they didn't just throw us out there and hope for the best.
They teamed Mark up with the Kuberts and they teamed me up with Bagley
and they really let us put on a show. And I thought about this, and I
came to the retreat, and Matt and I talked about this at length.

And Matt and I came up to them and I said, here's the idea. It's almost
like a series of annuals, but they're interconnected, if that's what
the reader wants. Like we've talked about before, I'm obsessed with
that. I don't want to force you to buy anything, right? But what would
be great is, the idea that now that Norman's in charge, and now that
he's got this strong foothold after the events of Matt's crossover,
then he puts together a list of what he thinks is wrong with the Marvel
Universe. So from Norman's point of view, this is what's wrong.

NRAMA: What kind of things does he think is wrong?

BMB: What he sees as wrong, really, it's the status quo for the
Marvel Universe. It's what we see as normal stuff. His questions are
going to be things like, why is Hulk allowed to run around? And where
the hell is Nick Fury? And why Reed Richards allowed to have portals to
the Negative Zone? And once you hear those questions asked, you say,
you know, that's a good question.

The thing I always liked about Magneto is that his point of view is
arguable. So that's what we wanted to make sure Norman had in this one,
where you can look at him and go, yeah, that's a good point. You can
see why he would want to whack the Hulk. It's legitimate.

So what we proposed is that every one of these specials deals with
someone on the list, and it's written by one of these guys we're all
hoping for. And not only that, but you team them up with a really great
artist -- people we all admire their art -- and some of them, for
whatever reason, aren't able to do a monthly book right now. Boy this
stuck to the wall. Dan and Joe just went for this really quickly
because it made a lot of sense.

Like I love a great annual. A great annual is something that really
changes the book and really puts on a show. So these aren't annuals per
se, but they're specials that, if you choose to buy all of them, you're
going to get this really huge Dark Reign story told by the best writers
working and the best artists drawing. OR you can just pick and choose
what you want to read, based on whatever artist or writer you're
digging. And that to me is the best.

My first one sets it up, and also it's a huge chapter for the Avengers
as this thing goes forward. It sets up with Norman's "list" is. And it
also sets up the final thing that's going on in the Avengers books,
which is Clint Barton and Norman Osborn are having a bit of a media
war. And it comes to a head in this series. And it's a huge, huge
chapter for Clint Barton and the Avengers.

And it's drawn by Marko Djurdjevic. And I love him. I've been literally
waiting to work with him. And I'm very, very exciting. I just think his
Thor stuff is fantastic, and I love his interiors even more than I love
his covers. And I'm so excited that he's drawing this.

NRAMA: Are you writing it with him in mind?

BMB: Absolutely. They said, "he's in," and then I wrote it. Studied his Thor issues like it was the Torah.

NRAMA: We talked back in Baltimore about how Dark Reign wasn't
an event and how it was just a label to be put onto certain books, but
this story has really permeated a lot of the Marvel Universe.

BMB: Yeah, it's grown, but that has to do equal parts with the
writers and the audience. You hope an idea like this inspires good
stories, and Dark Reign has inspired some really great stuff out of
great people. And the audience is digging it. Like Dark Avengers is
doing a lot better than I ever thought it would. It's selling better
than New Avengers! People are digging it. And The List is a pretty big
chapter of that, and when it's over, there will be all kinds of changes
that have happened. And I know you hate the word change; you hear it
all the time. But this is a big status quo changer.

NRAMA: Is there really going to be much change? Because it kind
of sounds like, to me, like Norman's going to have this list of things
he wants to do, but he's going to find out why nobody can do them.

BMB: Oh, no, he's going to do them. Some of them he's going to
actually do, and some of them he's going to say, "Oh, that's why you
don't do that." Or "Oh, shit, Nick Fury really is smarter than me after
all."

Look, in the very first one, something big happens. How about that?

NRAMA: OK, I'll take that.

BMB: No, it was cool. Everyone had a pitch. It was like, here,
with this premise, what's your story? And the editors did all of it.
But we put out the question. And we said, "what's your answer?" And the
stories that came back just had me saying, oh that's fantastic, or oh,
that's hilarious, or oh, that's scary.

So these questions that Norman asks? We're going to answer them. And they might not be the answers you think.